- Home
- ARTISTS
- Etel Adnan
- Ghada Amer
- Hangama Amiri
- Yto Barrada
- Rana Begum
- Huguette Caland
- Manal Al Dowayan
- Mandy El-Sayegh
- Monir Farmanfarmaian
- Simone Fattal
- Lamya Gargash
- Daniele Genadry
- Zeinab Al Hashermi
- Mona Hatoum
- Susan Hefuna
- Maryam Hoseini
- Helen Khal
- Hayv Kharaman
- Laleh Khorramian
- Tala Madani
- Shaikha Al Mazrou
- Maysha Mohamedi
- Naqsh Collective
- Shirin Neshat
- Monira Al Qadiri
- Farah Al Qasimi
- Alymamah Rashed
- Haleh Redjaian
- Mona Saudi
- Hoda Tawakol
- Helen Zughaib
- About
- News
- Contact
alymamah rashed
About the Artist
Alymamah Rashed (b. 1994, Kuwait) describes herself as a ‘Muslima Cyborg’. Rashed obtained her BFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2016 and her MFA in Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design, also in New York, in 2019. The artist engages with her experiences of living and working between Kuwait and New York, and the industrialisation of the Gulf region that she has witnessed. She was the recipient of Masters Academic and Merit Scholarships awarded by the Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education and was a fellow of the Professional Development Initiative Program sponsored by the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce; the Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education; the Embassy of Kuwait; and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences.
Rashed’s work is largely informed by her experience of her body and various childhood health issues. Her practice charts her journey with illness and the lasting impact it leaves on the body, an impact that in her case led to her embracing an identity as a Muslima Cyborg, or what she terms a three-part identity: the first part is the flesh, a body revealed and existent on its own terms, celebrating its imperfections; the second part is the thob, a garment worn by Muslim women during prayer; and the third part is a conflation of the two, where flesh and garment meet.
The artist’s work inquires not only into her own experiences of herself but also into the experiences of the many Muslim women confronted with Islamophobia and racism. Rashed aims to empower these women by reclaiming the trauma. She engages with the notion of the cyborg as a spiritual intelligence. Her exploration of female subjectivity with regional folklore takes place in the context of the post-internet generation.
Alymamah Rashed. Courtesy the artist and Tabari Artspace
WORKS IN THE COLLECTION
Alymamah Rashed, "We’re Not Traitors, We’re Transients", 2020
Watercolour on paper, 47 × 36.8 cm
Courtesy the artist and Tabari Artspace
We’re Not Traitors, We’re Transients (2020) considers identity and body politics through the lens of abstraction, revealing and concealing aspects of the artist’s own experiences. The watercolour conveys a sense of movement not only on the paper itself, but through words, the visual and the material. Winged hands repeated multiple times symbolise the hand of the artist and a willingness to look at what it might mean to experience freedom from the body.
Alymamah Rashed, "My Eyes Will Listen to Your Forgotten Promises", 2020
Watercolour on paper, 47 × 36.8 cm
Courtesy the artist and Tabari Artspace
My Eyes Will Listen to Your Forgotten Promises (2020) hints at shapes, both human and animal, moving seamlessly between figuration and abstraction. Figurative depictions of open eyes appear on abstract, lizard-like creatures among other manipulated forms. Rashed draws upon art historical tradition to challenge the notion of the gaze, directing it out towards the viewer, who is confronted by watching – perhaps even judging – eyes, and the possibility of experiencing something of what an individual may be subjected to when their body is politicised.